Appraisal Sentiment And Emotion Analysis In Political Discourse A Multimodal Multimethod Approach 1st Edition Claudia Roberta Combei

Appraisal Sentiment And Emotion Analysis In
Political Discourse A Multimodal Multimethod
Approach 1st Edition Claudia Roberta Combei
download
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-sentiment-and-emotion-
analysis-in-political-discourse-a-multimodal-multimethod-
approach-1st-edition-claudia-roberta-combei-55656492
Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.
Appraisal And The Transcreation Of Marketing Texts Persuasion In
Chinese And English 1st Edition Ho
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-and-the-transcreation-of-
marketing-texts-persuasion-in-chinese-and-english-1st-edition-
ho-55971416
Appraisal And Valuation Contemporary Issues And New Frontiers 1st Ed
Pierluigi Morano
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-and-valuation-contemporary-
issues-and-new-frontiers-1st-ed-pierluigi-morano-22504518
Appraisal Processes In Emotion Theory Methods Research 1st Edition
Klaus R Scherer
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-processes-in-emotion-theory-
methods-research-1st-edition-klaus-r-scherer-2340670
Appraisal Of Existing Structures 3rd The Institution Of Structural
Engineers
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-of-existing-structures-3rd-
the-institution-of-structural-engineers-2432396

Appraisal And Selection Of Projects A Multifaceted Approach Utpal K
Ghosh
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-and-selection-of-projects-a-
multifaceted-approach-utpal-k-ghosh-33790362
The Appraisal Of Real Estate 15th Edition 15th Edition Appraisal
Institute
https://ebookbell.com/product/the-appraisal-of-real-estate-15th-
edition-15th-edition-appraisal-institute-34488968
Appraisal And Repair Of Timber Structures Ross Peter
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-and-repair-of-timber-
structures-ross-peter-5309630
Appraisal From Theory To Practice Results Of Siev 2015 1st Edition
Stefano Stanghellini
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-from-theory-to-practice-
results-of-siev-2015-1st-edition-stefano-stanghellini-5697424
Appraisal And Acquisition Kate Theimer
https://ebookbell.com/product/appraisal-and-acquisition-kate-
theimer-49009986

Claudia Roberta Combei is a Researcher (RTD-a) in Linguistics and Head of the
Experimental Phonetics Laboratory at the University of Pavia. She earned her PhD
from the University of Pisa, specialising in phonetics and corpus linguistics. Her re-
search employs a mixed-method approach, exploring topics such as political and
social media discourse, non-native speech, and sociophonetics. She has co-coordi-
nated the RadioCast-it speech corpus and serves as a member of the editorial board
of Bibliography of Metaphor and Metonymy – MetBib. She has reviewed for na-
tional and international scientific conferences and journals.
Valeria Reggi is a discourse analyst and certified English-Italian translator. She is
currently an Adjunct Professor and Tutor at the University of Bologna and the
University of Brescia, and she collaborates with University College London. Valeria
Reggi is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Media Ecology journal New
Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication. Her research interests in-
clude Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, political discourse, disinformation,
stereotyping, nationalism, and critical thinking.
This book adopts a multi-method multimodal approach to the study of online po-
litical communication, applying it to case studies from the United Kingdom, France,
and Italy towards offering a portrait of the rapid ideological shifts in contemporary
Western democracies.
The volume introduces an integrated framework combining Sentiment and Emo-
tion Analysis, rooted in lexical semantics, and the qualitative dimensions of Ap-
praisal Theory, applying it to large corpora of online political communication from
the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. Combei and Reggi highlight their com-
bined potential in analysing the multimodal resources in such discourses and in
turn revealing fresh insights into layers of subtext and the ways in which parties
and movements frame their political programmes and values. The authors also take
into account culture- and language-specific variables across the three countries in
shaping such discourses. The volume makes the case for an integrated method-
ological framework that can be uniquely applied to better understand the multi-
modal communicative landscape of divisiveness in today’s rapidly shifting political
climate and other forms of online communication more broadly.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars in digital communication,
political communication, multimodality, and qualitative and quantitative discourse
analysis, especially those interested in corpus-assisted approaches.
Appraisal, Sentiment and
Emotion Analysis in Political
Discourse

Routledge Studies in Multimodality
Edited by Kay L. O’Halloran,
Curtin University
A Multimodal Stylistic Approach to Screen Adaptations of the Work of
Alice Munro
Sabrina Francesconi
Multimodal Chinese Discourse
Understanding Communication and Society in Contemporary China
Dezheng (William) Feng
Organizational Semiotics
Multimodal Perspectives on Organization Studies
Edited by Louise Ravelli, Theo Van Leeuwen, Markus A. Höllerer and
Dennis Jancsary
Reading Images for Knowledge Building
Analyzing Infographics in School Science
J. R. Martin and Len Unsworth
Multimodality and Social Interaction in Online and Offline Shopping
Edited by Gitte Rasmussen and Theo van Leeuwen
Relational and Multimodal Higher Education
Digital, Social and Environmental Perspectives
Nataša Lacković and Alin Olteanu
Appraisal, Sentiment and Emotion Analysis in Political Discourse
A Multimodal, Multi-method Approach
Authored by Claudia Roberta Combei and Valeria Reggi
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Routledge-Studies-in-Multimodality/book-series/RSMM

Appraisal, Sentiment and
Emotion Analysis in Political
Discourse
A Multimodal, Multi-method Approach
Claudia Roberta Combei and Valeria Reggi

First published 2024
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2024 Claudia Roberta Combei and Valeria Reggi
The right of Claudia Roberta Combei and Valeria Reggi to be
identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN: 978-1-032-21420-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-21421-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26834-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003268345
Typeset in Sabon
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)

C. R. Combei’s dedication:
To my family, past and present. Your love and influence
remain close to my heart even as time and distance keep
us apart.
V. Reggi’s dedication:
To Alfonso – my loving dad, my best friend and an
everlasting source of inspiration.

Contents
Authorship note ix
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Book outline 7
2 Language and politics 10
2.1 Populism and polarisation in the 21st century 12
2.2 Politics and discourse: two sides of the same coin 19
2.3 What can linguistics tell us about political discourse? 22
2.4 Talking politics online 29
3 A multi-method approach for the analysis of political
discourse 35
3.1 Online political discourse: a multimodal challenge 37
3.2 From messages to data 40
3.3 Automated corpus analyses 43
3.4 Appraisal analysis of polarised communication 47
4 Right-wing parties: then and now 56
4.1 The League, an Italian story 57
4.2 United Kingdom: from the Brexit Party to Reform UK 62
4.3 Brothers of Italy, a cumbersome past 64
4.4 France: from the National Front to the National Rally 67
4.5 Concluding remarks 70
5 Engaging with the audience 74
5.1 From followers to voters 78
5.2 Fear, anger, trust 86

viii Contents
5.3 Similarities and differences across media 92
5.4 Concluding remarks 95
6 Defining identity 97
6.1 Tweeting from right to right 101
6.2 The website as a receptacle of programmes and values 114
6.3 Concluding remarks 124
7 Us against them: a multimodal perspective 127
7.1 Visual campaigns 128
7.2 Them, an overview 130
7.3 Us against them 131
7.4 Concluding remarks 140
8 Online communication and societal cha(lle)nges 144
References 151
Index 167

Authorship note
Appraisal, Sentiment and Emotion Analysis in Political Discourse:
A Multimodal, Multi-method Approach
(C. R. Combei and V. Reggi)
This book is the collaborative effort of two authors, Claudia Roberta
Combei and Valeria Reggi, who both contributed their expertise and in-
sights to its creation. Throughout the book, the authorship of each chapter
and section is as follows:
Chapter 1 (‘Introduction’) was authored by both authors.
Chapter 2 (‘Language and politics’) was authored by Claudia Roberta
Combei.
In Chapter 3 (‘A multi-method approach for the analysis of political dis-
course’), the ‘Introduction’ was written by both authors, Valeria Reggi
authored Sections 3.1 and 3.4, while Claudia Roberta Combei authored
Sections 3.2 and 3.3.
Chapter 4 (‘Right-wing parties: then and now’) was authored by Valeria Reggi.
In Chapter 5 (‘Engaging with the audience’), the ‘Introduction’ and Sec-
tions 5.1, 5.2, and 5.4 were authored by Claudia Roberta Combei,
while Section 5.3 was authored by Valeria Reggi.
In Chapter 6 (‘Defining identity’), the ‘Introduction’ and Section 6.3 were
authored by Valeria Reggi, Section 6.1 was authored by Claudia Ro-
berta Combei, while Section 6.2 was authored by both authors.
Chapter 7 (‘Us against them: a multimodal perspective’) was authored by
Valeria Reggi.
Chapter 8 (‘Online communication and societal cha(lle)nges’) was au-
thored by both authors.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003268345-1
The year 2022 can possibly be considered a milestone in the recent history
of European politics. For the first time after World War II, the far right
consolidated its position by making a significant upward trajectory in two
of the most populated countries – and founding members – of the Euro-
pean Union (EU), France and Italy. In the French presidential elections,
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN) made an
unprecedented leap forward, reaching 41.6% of the ballot. In Italy, Broth-
ers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia, FdI) won the general elections with 26% of the
votes, within a right-wing coalition that obtained a total of 43.8%. This
result also coincided with the appointment of the first female Prime Minis-
ter in the history of the Republic – Giorgia Meloni, the leader of FdI. The
remarkable success of these parties was preceded by the rapid growth of
many right-wing movements across Europe in the previous decade. One of
the key factors (or, possibly, the decisive factor) of this upward trajectory
was the attention that these parties devoted to implementing effective com-
munication strategies, especially on online channels. For this reason, we
have decided to focus our analysis on the online discourses of four Euro-
pean right-wing parties with different characteristics and electorates,
which, in our opinion, provide a significant test bed for our multimodal,
multi-method discourse analysis.
The debate on the rise of the (far) right in Europe has been animating the
academic stage for over three decades, that is, long before its current elec-
toral success. This is because not only radical parties are now more popu-
lar than ever, but their successes have also had an impact on the so-called
mainstream right (Wagner and Meyer, 2017; Bale and Rovira Kaltwasser,
2022), as the borders between centrist positions and extreme ideologies are
becoming fuzzier by the day. Some European radical parties are approach-
ing topics such as authoritarianism, immigration, and sovereigntism with
a more moderate outlook than in the past to appeal to a wider electorate.
In other cases, the mainstream right has generally embraced more extreme
positions, but in so doing has often risked losing votes from moderate
1 Introduction

2 Introduction
voters; hence, it has been unable to replace the far right, which, having
intensified its extremism, has often managed to meet the electorate’s
increasing demand for law and order. Besides country-specific conditions,
the general reason for the steady upward trajectory of the right as a whole
lies in addressing the topics that most involve the electorate: the societal
changes (and challenges) brought forth by a series of severe economic cri-
ses, the intensification of migration flows, and globalisation (Mudde, 2007;
Wodak, 2015; Kriesi and Schulte-Cloos, 2020).
The present-day success of right-wing parties in France and Italy is sig-
nificant not only in quantitative terms but also because it marks a clear
shift of these actors from the original fringe position as heirs of the post-
Fascist party, the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano),
to a catch-all, mainstream political identity. This shift towards the right in
France and Italy has taken place, quite remarkably, in just a decade. It has
involved a considerable ‘restyling’ of the parties’ images and manifestos,
which have led them to disavow their extremist (often racist and sexist)
past and offer a positive, humane identity embodied by modern female
leaders.
While the case of the National Rally and Brothers of Italy is perhaps
the most blatant, two other movements have been building fresh identi-
ties in recent years: the Italian party League (Lega) and the British party
Reform UK. As we shall see in Chapter 4, the former started to abandon
its traditional regionalism to open up to a national electorate in 2014
with the leadership of Matteo Salvini. This evolution was met with favour
by the electorate in 2019, but was not confirmed by the recent elections,
which showed a dramatic decrease in the percentage of votes; nonethe-
less, at present, the League is firmly in power as a member of the right-
wing coalition that won the Italian elections. Reform UK, on the other
hand, is progressively building a new political identity that may retain
some of the principles that it inherited from the defunct Brexit Party,
while, at the same time, fitting in others to deal with the troubled context
of the United Kingdom after its exit from the EU and trying to meet the
demands of the electorate ahead of the next parliamentary elections.
1
Time will tell whether these trajectories may affect political action or are
merely a rhetorical device for electoral success. What is relevant for our
research is that, despite significant differences in their scope and motives,
they provide an interesting and varied example of the paramount role of
communication in shaping and re-shaping political identities, and, as such,
they offer interesting material for our analysis.
The evolution from fringe movements to mainstream parties has moti-
vated us to opt for the broad definition of ‘right-wing’, dropping all refer-
ences to their, more or less marked, extremism and radicalism – current or
past. This does not imply that we intend to disregard the existence of

Introduction 3
highly polarised tones and themes recalling a genealogy influenced by radi-
cal ideologies in some of the parties’ communications, as our analysis will
show. We would rather focus on the political identity these parties com-
municate, both explicitly and implicitly, and how they choose to commu-
nicate it, without delving into labels that are still the subject of debate and
too specific for the purposes of this book.
While the debate on the definition of resurgent rightist parties with the
use of terms such as ‘far’, ‘radical’, or ‘extreme’ is not particularly enlight-
ening when studying their discursive strategies, their definition as ‘popu-
list’ is significant and deserves some attention (Betz, 1993; Mudde, 2007),
as it deeply affects the content and style of political communication. Popu-
lism is one of the most relevant phenomena not only in contemporary poli-
tics but also in contemporary society; so much so that it was nominated
word of the year by Cambridge Dictionary in 2017. Whether we under-
stand it as a ‘thin-centered ideology’ (Mudde, 2004: 544), a rhetorical style
(Aslanidis, 2016), a political strategy (Weyland, 2001), or a political style
(Moffitt, 2016), there is no doubt populism has permeated the way con-
temporary political actors address their electorates. Although the phenom-
enon is ‘transversal’ to the party’s ideological affiliation, most European
populist parties are, in fact, rightist (Taggart and Pirro, 2021). In the case
of our study, the reverse is also true, as all the right-wing parties under
analysis are typically acknowledged as ‘populist’ (ibidem). For this reason,
Chapter 2 will provide a brief discussion of the many definitions of popu-
lism, which will help us to find a viable, consistent grid for our analysis of
the prevailing themes of the parties’ communication.
The success of populism is due to its chameleon-like nature, making it
pervasive and difficult to pinpoint, and also due to Web 2.0, which pro-
vides a favourable environment for its success on different levels. Social
media offers an apparently unmediated communication channel for party
leaders to connect to potential voters. Although the audience is usually
aware that the leader is very unlikely to read any of the comments to her/
his posts (an activity that is normally carried out by communication spe-
cialists), the structure of social media is dialogic and is treated as such. It is
worth noting that, while acknowledging the extraordinary importance of
spin doctors and communication specialists, we have decided not to
directly feature them in this analysis. As the discussion on populism will
show, a leader is not only responsible for a party’s communication but she/
he embodies the party and promotes its ideology to the public. Specialists,
therefore, are considered part of the communication process but are not
held accountable for the final message. Furthermore, platform algorithms
suggest customised content based on users’ individual preferences and, in
so doing, foster the spread of a polarised view of society on which popu-
lism thrives. The role of discursive strategies in creating and sharing

4 Introduction
populist content and in turning social media platforms into arenas for
permanent electoral campaigning will be explored in Chapter 2.
The paramount importance of online communication for the parties
under analysis has motivated us to focus, on the one hand, on the material
made available on their official websites, such as billboards, graphics,
information web pages, news and programmes, and, on the other hand, on
Twitter posts as a privileged channel for political communication on social
media. It is worth noting that there were (and still are) significant differ-
ences in the quantity and type of material on the parties’ websites. Although
these differences speak volumes about the parties’ respective communica-
tive strategies, we did not focus on them because, due to the uneven nature
of the available material, it was necessary for us to choose the data and the
parties to analyse on the grounds of their similarities. Therefore, in order
to study comparable material, we selected the parties depending on the
aspects we wanted to focus on. For example, the absence of a news section
on the League’s website made us opt for FdI and Reform UK, whereas we
chose to make a comparison between RN and FdI due to their similarities
in graphic content.
The rationale for this selection will be explained when discussing the
analysis and its results, in Chapters 5 through 7. At this stage, it is impor-
tant to point out that, despite significant differences in the communication
strategies put in place by the parties, these samples offer a broad overview
of the role of different modes, such as verbal texts, images, and videos, in
political communication. While online material provides insight into the
state of a party’s communication, its impermanence is also an undeniable
limitation, as websites are constantly updated, and any analysis may
become obsolete in a flash. We believe, however, that the observations that
our study offers retain their validity. Most material is still available despite
website updates, and all four websites have, so far, developed consistently,
following their own style and principles, which means that the conclusions
we came to are still applicable to current content. Even the time gap that
separates our analysis from the confirmation of the success of the right in
2022 should not be considered a hindrance. It is true that our study refers
mostly to material collected in 2021 but the results are relevant nonethe-
less: on the one hand, polls were already showing that most right-wing
movements were skyrocketing; on the other hand, all the actors under
analysis were campaigning for local or general elections of the following
year. In other words, the context of electoral competition and the favour-
able forecasts made the communication strategies of those parties all the
more interesting to analyse.
These preliminary observations help us explain the origins of this project
and answer the question, ‘Why yet another book on the discourse of the
right?’ Even better, ‘Why yet another book on the analysis of the discourse

Introduction 5
of the right?’ First, as we have already observed, the right has been gaining
momentum across Europe, especially in the last decade (Taggart and Pirro,
2021). Moreover, we are living in an age in which the outcome of elections
and referendums worldwide seem to be often affected by a duplicitous use
of these media platforms, while the concepts of fake news, misinformation,
and disinformation have entered our everyday language. Much effort has
been devoted to holding social media corporations accountable and intro-
ducing digital literacy into school programmes (Council of Europe, 2016;
Veltri, 2017; European Commission, 2018). On the level of content and
fact-checking, important initiatives proliferate online and offline on how to
debunk fake news and misinformation,
2
including those promoted by
social media themselves (e.g., Twitter has recently introduced a crisis mis-
information policy).
3
However, we should never forget that digital communication is still, first
and foremost, an exchange of messages. It involves signs (words, sounds,
images) that we are already expected to know how to encode and decode
in our everyday communication outside of cyberspace (Hall, 2001). It is
true that the digital evolution has added a hypermodal dimension to it,
consisting of complex connections of meaning fostered by hyperlinks
(Lemke, 2002); it is also true that traditional communication is not subject
to algorithms and to cognitive ‘bubbles’ created to entrap us. All commu-
nication, however, is by definition subject to ‘noise’, the rules and the affor-
dances that are typical (or exclusive) of every channel. The digital realm,
however, has not altered the essence of the communicative process, as it
basically consists of a message being encoded by a sender, sent through a
channel that can be affected by noise, and later decoded by a receiver,
within a specific context (Jackson, 2014: 76). The digital world is no
exception, and its algorithms may cause noise. Except for the peculiarities
of the web in leading our attention in one direction or another, manipula-
tion and misinformation act on digital messages in the very same way as
on traditional ones. That is why knowing the rules of digital communica-
tion is very important, but mastering the way communication works is
essential, regardless of the use of digital or analogue channels.
One of the most important principles that is frequently overlooked by
analysts is that communication depends on a variety of semiotic resources
such as language, paralanguage, kinesics, images, sounds, and so on (Baldry
and Thibault, 2006; Kress, 2011), which act simultaneously to make mean-
ing. Each of these resources is called a mode. As we shall see in Chapters 2
and 3, the characteristics and use of modes depend on and express both
power relations and cultural habits. In a word, modes are socially shaped
and culturally given (Kress, 2010: 79). The presence of a variety of semiotic
resources in any form of communication and their cultural and social
value bear two important consequences on the design of this research.

6 Introduction
Firstly, the analysis needed to be multimodal, that is, to account for differ-
ent modes and the meanings they carry. Secondly, it needed some reflec-
tions on the ideological implications on the choice of modes and their
meaning potential: as all texts ‘realize the interests of their makers’ (Kress,
2011: 36), power is always involved in the process of meaning-making
(ibidem). This was all the more true as the texts analysed were published
online (thus involving a wide array of semiotic resources) and concerned
political communication, which by nature promotes a specific worldview.
To better encompass the dual nature, both ideological and multimodal, of
online political communication, we have chosen the approach of social
semiotics, which focuses on the context of sign-making as well as on the
interests of the sign-maker (Jewitt, 2011: 36). While other approaches
focus on the interactional aspect or the organisational structures of com-
munication, social semiotics ‘deals with meaning in all its appearances, in
all social occasions and in all cultural sites’ (Kress, 2010: 2).
The significant contribution that Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA)
can provide to develop critical thinking consists in offering effective lin-
guistic tools to foreground and understand implied propaganda and
manipulation, especially (but not limited to) when it comes to political
communication, upon which crucial electoral choices are made. The British
referendum on EU membership and the misinformation that preceded the
vote are a very recent example of the magnitude of this impact. Since polit-
ical communication has become increasingly varied and multi-channelled,
we believe that discourse analysis needs to apply to different semiotic
resources. Its tools need to become more comprehensive by integrating
qualitative and quantitative methods and applying them to different modes:
encouraging critical thinking by suggesting a viable way to apply discourse
analysis within a multimodal frame is precisely the goal to which this vol-
ume intends to contribute.
The horizontality and availability of digital platforms, especially social
media, have prompted a change in how political debate is handled by par-
ties and their leaders. This process has also influenced the way linguists
analyse political discourse. As mentioned, multimodality is well repre-
sented in online political discourse, because official websites and social
media posts are often accompanied by emojis, images, photographs, vid-
eos, and hyperlinks to other websites or resources. However, this charac-
teristic of political discourse has received scholarly attention only in recent
years (e.g., Poggi et al., 2013; Wodak, 2015; Mackay, 2022; Poggi and
D’Errico, 2023), when the increasing presence of politicians on television
and online has made it possible to analyse the effect of their multimodal
conduct on the voters’ perceptions. For instance, some studies have shown
that the electorate builds political opinions and preferences not so much
on the basis of the arguments conveyed by the actual speeches, but instead

Introduction 7
on the basis of extra-verbal elements, such as the physical appearance of
the candidates, their posture and gestures, or the emotional valence of the
messages they deliver (see Maricchiolo et al., 2014; Boussalis et al., 2021;
Gennaro and Ash, 2022, for a discussion). Our work brings into play the
multimodal dimension of political communication as well as its emotional
content; to do so, we adopt a multi-method approach to analyse the online
discourse produced by the four right-wing populist parties mentioned
earlier.
In this respect, Chapter 3 proposes a feasible combination of corpus
analyses, including the exploration of specific elements and constructions
(direct interrogatives, hashtags, and emojis), an automatised lexicon-based
system for sentiment and emotion analysis, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s
Grammar of Visual Design (1996) and Martin and White’s Appraisal The-
ory (2005), the latter being applied also by means of manual coding with
Multimodal Analysis Images and Multimodal Analysis Video (O’Halloran
et al., 2012; Tan et al., 2012). In order to obtain a more comprehensive
understanding of the dynamics of right-wing communication, automated
and qualitative methods are applied in tandem, following a convergent
research design (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011), as we shall discuss in
Chapter 3. To account for the versatile characteristics of online political
discourse, we consider over 30,000 tweets published on the Twitter
accounts of the parties and of the party leaders as well as a representative
sample of pages taken from the parties’ websites. Tweets, which can only
be 280 characters long, are given more prominence thanks to multimodal-
ity and emotional valence, which also help politicians to personalise their
communication and to reach the electorate more directly and efficiently.
Moreover, the official websites contain all sorts of multimodal data (e.g.,
videos, interactive content, manifestos, billboards, leaflets, news, and
events), and oftentimes they reference tweets and other social media posts
in their home pages contributing to the creation of a variegated and multi-
modal media ecosystem. In order to account for how online political dis-
course is constructed linguistically and how the political content is framed,
our research takes into consideration both verbal and nonverbal compo-
nents that are analysed according to the attitude they foreground (Martin
and White, 2005), the sentiment they convey, and the emotions they evoke
(Plutchik, 2001). The material that is primarily visual (e.g., billboards) is
investigated following Kress and van Leeuwen (1996), in an attempt to
disentangle and comprehend implied meanings.
1.1 Book outline
Chapter 2 presents an overview of the relationship between language and
politics, with a focus on the role of discourse in the political strategies of

8 Introduction
populist movements. The chapter examines the definitions of populism
and its preference for polarised discourse. It then goes on to explore the
academic debate on political discourse analysis, with particular reference
to corpus-based studies on the topic. The last section focuses on digitally
mediated political communication and its paramount role in the communi-
cation of populist parties as a space for permanent electoral campaigning.
Chapter 3 offers an overview of the multi-method, multimodal approach
to the analysis of political discourse that the book aims to propose. The
first part of the chapter discusses the challenges of collecting, processing,
and analysing the data of online political communication. The following
sections provide details of the three strands of analysis (1. multimodality,
2. corpus exploration and sentiment and emotion analysis, and 3. appraisal
analysis), with a focus on tools and experimental design. At the same time,
the chapter offers a reflection on how these levels intertwine and why they
are used together in order to foreground implied subtexts.
Chapter 4 contextualises the case studies by providing an overview of
the parties’ backgrounds. Particular attention is devoted to their similari-
ties, their differences, and their, often intertwined, trajectories, which pro-
vide solid ground for selecting them as test beds. These characteristics
include their participation in electoral campaigning, their varied range of
vote shares, and the different amount of attention they received from aca-
demic scholars.
Chapter 5 discusses the emotional valence of online communication
directed at potential voters by analysing the discursive strategies of FdI and
Reform UK. The chapter focuses on the use of specific linguistic elements
and constructions (emojis, hashtags, and questions), as well as on the fear/
anger-trust emotive discursive structure, deployed primarily for audience
engagement, the creation of an ingroup, and campaigning purposes. The
automated corpus analyses are complemented by a multimodal investiga-
tion of a sample of tweets, news, and videos.
Chapter 6 examines the role of identity construction in the political
strategies of western democracies, in which so-called identity politics have
become common practice, especially for populist parties. The construction
of group membership is based on the creation of an external ‘Other’ by
means of representations, which are negotiated and re-negotiated in politi-
cal discourse by means of increasingly emotional language. The chapter
presents an analysis of the linguistic strategies employed by FdI, League,
and Reform UK to define their identity and values through online commu-
nication. The study concerns tweets and website material and adopts an
automated quantitative exploration and a manual qualitative analysis able
to reveal the multimodal nature of the data.
Chapter 7 examines how FdI and RN build oppositional identities in the
online graphic material they offer to activists and supporters. It focuses on

Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:

except once, so I am not conceited; and as for Renton, no such iniquity
could ever be, as that it should go past you, Ben.’
‘You speak strongly,’ said the elder brother.
‘That is one result of time, you know. One can see now, without
irreverence, how wrong my poor father was. Of course we would have been
wretches had we been capable of anything but obedience at the time,’ said
Laurie; ‘but, looking back, one can see more clearly. He was wrong,—I
don’t bear him any malice, poor dear old father! but he did us as much harm
almost as was possible. And if Renton is left out of the natural succession, I
shall say it is iniquity, and oppose it with all my power.’
‘It would be iniquity,’ Ben said, gravely. And then there was a pause. The
three sat, going back into their individual memories, unaware what devious
paths the others were treading. But for that Laurie might never have fallen
into the temptation which had stolen what energy he had out of him, and
strengthened all his dreamy, unpractical ways. But for that Ben might have
given the Renton force and strength of work to his country, and served her,
—as is the citizen’s first duty,—instead of making American railroads,
which another man might have been found to do. As for Mary, the paths in
which she went wandering were not her own. It did not occur to her to think
of the seven years, which for her had been simple loss. Had she been living
at home, no doubt, long before this she would have married some one, and
been like Alice, the mother of children. But such were not Mary’s
reflections. She was thinking if this had not happened Ben would have
married Millicent seven years ago, and that, on the whole, everything was
for the best.
They had but one other day to themselves; but during that day the house
felt, with a bewildered sense of confusion and uncertainty, that old times
had come back. Mr. Ben and Mr. Laurie had gone back to their old rooms;
and their steps and voices, the peremptory orders of the eldest, the ‘chaff’ of
Mr. Laurie, ‘who was a gentleman as you never could understand whether
he was in earnest or in joke,’—turned the heads of the old servants. They,
like their mistress, were upset by the new régime; the dulness of the house
had been a trouble to them when her reign of utter seclusion commenced;
but if it was dull, there was little to do, and the house had habituated itself
to the monotonous round. And now they felt it a hardship when the noise
and the work recommenced, and dinner ran the risk of having to wait ten

minutes, and breakfast was on the table from half-past eight to half-past ten.
‘All along o’ that lazy Laurie, as they calls him, and a very good name, too,’
said the affronted cook. Mary had much ado to keep them in working order.
‘There may be further changes after a while,’ she said to the old butler, who
had carried them all in his arms, and knew about everything, and who
would as soon have cut his throat as leave Renton;—‘you must have
patience for a little, and see how things turn out.’ Thus it will be seen that if
the return of her cousins brought any happiness to Mary it brought a great
increase of anxiety as well. And there was always the sense of Millicent’s
vicinity to weigh upon her mind. She had been looking forward for years to
the family reunion as the end of tribulation and beginning of a better life;
but up to this time her anticipations had not been fulfilled. Anxieties had
increased upon her,—one growing out of another. Instead of comfort, and
certainty, and the support which she had always been taught to believe were
involved in the possession of ‘men in the house,’ Mary found that these
tenants had rather an agitating than a calming effect upon herself and the
community in general. That she should have more trouble about the dinners
was natural; but that even their mother should require to be let softly down
into the enjoyment of their society, and that circumstances in general
required double consideration on account of their presence, was a new idea
to Mary. And then it turned out that Mrs. Renton had spoken very truly
when she said a man must have something to do. Both ‘the boys’ were in a
state of restlessness and excitement, not disposed to settle to anything.
There was capital shooting to be had, and the partridges were everything a
sportsman could desire; but somehow even Ben felt that partridges were not
congenial to the occasion. And as for Laurie, he was too indolent to make
any such exertion. ‘Wait till Frank comes,’ he said. ‘Frank has energy for
two. If we were on a Scotch moor, indeed, where you want to move about
to keep yourself warm; but it’s too hot, my dear fellow, for stumping about
through the stubble. I’ll take Mary out after a bit for a row.’ And Ben’s
activities, too, culminated in the same idea. Laurie lay in the bottom of the
boat, sometimes puffing gently at his cigar, doing simply nothing, while
Ben pulled against stream, and Mary steered him dexterously through the
weeds; and then the three floated slowly down again, saying little to each
other, lingering along the mid current with scarcely any movement of the
languid oars. They were not very sociable in this strange amusement; but
still its starts of momentary violent exercise, its dreamy charm of

movement, the warm autumnal sun overhead, the delicious gliding water
that gurgled on the sides of the boat, and all the familiarity and all the
novelty of the scene, chimed in with their feelings. Ben was pondering the
future, which was still so dark,—his unfinished work at the other end of the
world,—what he would do with Renton if it came to him,—what he would
do if it did not come to him,—all the range of possibilities which overhung
his way as the trees overhung the river. Laurie, for his part, wandered in a
field of much wider fancy, and did not take Renton at all into account, nor
the chances which a few days might bring to him. What did it matter? he
could live, and he had no more to think of,—no future which interested him
particularly,—no hope that would be affected by the tenor of his father’s
will. Sometimes his eye would be caught by a combination of foliage, or a
sudden light on the water, or the turn of Mary’s arm as she plied her cords.
‘How did Mary keep her steering up while we were all away?’ he would say
between the puffs of his cigar, and made up his mind that she should sit to
him next day in that particular pose. Mary, for her own part, during these
expeditions, was too much occupied in watching her cousins to have any
thoughts of her own. What was Ben thinking of? Was it The Willows his
mind was fixed on as he opened his full chest and sent the boat up against
the stream with the force of an arrow out of a bow? Was it the image of
Millicent that made his eyes glow as he folded his arms, and let the skiff
idle on the current? And what were Laurie’s thoughts occupied about as he
lay, lazy, in the bottom? Mary gazed at them, and wondered, not knowing
what to think, and said to herself how much more difficult it was now to
prognosticate what would become of them than it would have been seven
years ago, at their first entering upon life. And thus the long day glided to
its end.
On the Saturday Frank and his belongings arrived, and all was altered.
Frank, so far as personal appearance went, was the least changed of all. His
moustache had grown from the silky shadow it used to be into a very
decided martial ornament, and he was brown with the Indian sun. Laurie
had the presumption to insinuate that he had grown, which touched the
soldier to the quick; but though he was the father of a family, the seven
years had affected him less than either of his brothers. To be sure, he was
but seven-and-twenty, and had lived a comparatively happy life. But it must
be allowed that the Sunday was hard to get through. The three brothers,
who were all very different men to begin with, had each got into his groove,

and each undervalued,—let us not say had a contempt for,—the occupation
of the other. What with India, and what with youth, and what with the
training of his profession, Frank had all the unreasoning conservatism
which was natural to a well-born, unintellectual soldier. And then he had a
wife to back him, which strengthens a man’s self-opinion. ‘Depend upon it,’
he would say, ‘these Radicals will land us all in perdition if they get their
way.’ ‘Why should I depend upon it, when my own opinion goes directly
contrary?’ Ben, who had been in America, and all over the world, drawing
in revolutionary ideas, would answer him. As for Laurie he would ask them
both, ‘What does it matter? one man is as good as another, if not better,’ and
smile in his pococurante way. The children were a godsend to them all, and
so was Alice with her youthful wisdom. For Mary by this time, with three
men to keep in order, as it were, and Mrs. Renton to hold safely in hand all
the time, and all unsuitable visitors to keep at a distance, and the dinner to
order, was about as much overwhelmed with cares, and as little capable of
the graces of society, as a woman could be. She had to spend with her aunt
the hour of that inevitable Sunday afternoon walk, and saw her flock pair
off and disappear among the trees with the sensations of an anxious mother,
who feels her nursery for the moment in comparative safety. Ben with Alice
and little Mary went one way, and Laurie and Frank took another. When she
had seen them off Mary turned with a satisfied mind to read to her
godmother the Sunday periodical which took the place of the newspaper on
this day. It was very mild reading, though it satisfied Mrs. Renton. It was
her principle not to drive on Sunday, and the morning was occupied by the
Morning Service, which Davison and she read together before she got up,
and that duty being over the Sunday periodical came in naturally to take the
place of the drive. It was very rarely that she felt able to go to church; and
of all days this day, which followed so closely the arrival of her sons, was
the one on which she could least be supposed capable of such an exertion.
So Mary read a story, and a sermon, and a missionary narrative, and was
very tired of it, while the slow afternoon lingered on and the others had
their walk.
Ben and Alice, though they were in the position of brother and sister, and
called each other by their Christian names, had met for the first time on the
day before, and naturally were not very much acquainted with each other’s
way of thinking. The woods were their great subject of discourse. ‘Frank
has talked of them wherever we were,’ said Alice. ‘I am so glad to bring the

children here. If we should have to go to India again it will be nice for them
to remember. But I need not speak like that,’ she added, after a moment’s
pause, with a sudden rush of tears to her blue eyes; ‘for if we have to go to
India we must leave little Mary behind,—she is too old to go back. And I
suppose if I were prudent, baby too—but I could not bear that.’
‘Why should you go back to India?’
‘Ah, we must, unless there is some money coming to us,’ said Alice:
‘you know I had no fortune. I did not think that mattered then; but when
one has children one learns. Do you think there will be some money for
Frank in the will?’
‘I am certain of it,’ said Ben.
‘Enough to make us able to stay at home,’ said Alice, clasping her hands.
‘It is not that I care for money, nor Frank either.’
‘But it is quite natural you should care. And I promise you,’ said Ben, ‘if
there is anything I can set right, that you shall not go back to India.
Whichever of us is preferred, you may be sure of that. I can answer for
Laurie as for myself.’
‘Oh, I know Laurie,’ cried Alice; ‘but I did not know you,—and then
perhaps Frank would not be willing;—but anyhow, since you say you are
sure, I will keep up my heart.’
And in the meantime Frank and Laurie by the river-side were having
their confidences too. ‘If it should come to me,’ Frank was saying, ‘I hope I
shall do what is right by Ben in any case—but it will be a struggle for that
little beggar’s sake.’
‘I would let the little beggar take his chance,’ said Laurie; ‘there is time
enough. I don’t think you need begin to consider him yet.’
‘I should do my duty, of course,’ said Frank, ‘by Ben, who has been
badly used; but I don’t deny it will cost me something, Laurie. A man does
not get ties about him for nothing. If I had the chance of a home for Alice
and the little ones,—even if it were not a home like this, by Jove! it would
be an awful temptation,—a temptation one would scarcely know how to
resist.’
‘Then it is to be hoped it will never come,’ said Laurie. ‘I don’t see how
we could stand in doubt for an instant. I don’t speak of natural justice. But
Ben was brought up to be the heir. There was never a doubt of his being the

heir till my poor father’s will had to be read. Therefore he must be the heir
now. I don’t care whether it falls to you or me. It’s as clear as daylight, and I
can’t believe you would find the least difficulty in doing what was right.’
‘I should do it,’ said Frank, but he made no further protestation. In his
heart he could not but say to himself that it was easy for Laurie, a man with
nobody dependent on him, with no question before him such as that of
returning or not returning to India, and with,—so far as any one knew,—no
prospects of future happiness which depended on this decision. And Ben,
too, was unmarried, and likely to be unmarried. ‘Unless he marries Mary,’
Frank said to himself. Of course if Renton fell to him he would marry, and
they had all pledged themselves that Renton must fall to him, and Ben
accordingly would sit down in his father’s seat, and bring in some stranger
to rule over the place, and Alice and the children would have to go away.
Back to India! If that were the only alternative Frank felt as if it would be
impossible to do his duty by Ben. The excitement of the moment, and the
fundamental simplicity of his mind, thus brought him to the strange notion
that all secondary justice must have been set aside, and that it would be a
question of everything or nothing to the victor. Thus the Rentons awaited,
with thoughts often too deep for words, with a restrained excitement
wonderful to behold, with hopes and sinkings of heart, the revelation of
their father’s will; and that was to take place next day.

CHAPTER XII.
SUSPENSE.
When the Rentons were all seated together in the drawing-room after
dinner, doing their best to get through the Sunday evening, a note was
brought to Mrs. Renton, to the amazement of all the family assembly. Mrs.
Westbury and her son Laurence, who was curate of Cookesley, had joined
them at dinner; and they were all seated in a circle round the room drinking
their tea and trying to talk, and suppressing an occasional yawn with the
true decorum of a family party. Sometimes there would get up a little lively
talk between Mary and her mother and brother touching the gossip of the
district, or Alice and Laurie would brighten into a familiar discussion of
something belonging to Fitzroy Square; but then they would suddenly
remark that the others were uninterested and taking no part, and the talk
would come to a stop, and Mrs. Westbury would make a commonplace
remark to one of her nephews, and Alice would ask the curate if he went
often to the Opera, and a uniformity of dulness would fall upon the party.
The Rentons were all well-bred people, and it was certainly not well-bred to
enjoy one’s self in an animated way in a corner with two or three, while the
rest of the company sat blank and did not know what one was making
merry about. To be sure, there was Alice’s music to fall back upon; but,
except to two or three of the company, that would not much mend matters;
so that when the note was brought to Mrs. Renton there was immediately a
little movement of interest. Ben brought one of the shaded lamps to his
mother that she might read it, and Mary drew near in case her services
should be wanted to write the answer, for which the butler stood solemnly
waiting erect in the midst of the fatigued group.
‘It must be something very urgent indeed to write about to-day,’ Mrs.
Westbury said. ‘I am old-fashioned, and I don’t think the family quiet
should be disturbed on Sunday unless it is something of importance.’
‘My dear, I can’t read these dreadful hands that people write now-a-
days,’ said Mrs. Renton. ‘I can’t get the light on it, and I am too tired to sit
up. If you would read it aloud, Ben——’

Ben took the little note in his hand, and put the lamp down on the nearest
table. His face was in shade, and it was impossible to tell what his feelings
were. He glanced over the note for a second, and then read it aloud as his
mother bade. It was a prayer to be allowed to visit the woods next morning
with a friend who was going away, and it was signed ‘Millicent Rich.’ ‘I
would not have dreamt of asking, knowing that you have all your people
about you, and do not want to be troubled with strangers,’ she wrote; ‘but
our friend is going off by the three o’clock train. We shall keep strictly to
the woods, and not come near the house to worry you, when your attention
must be so occupied with other things; but please let me come.’ This was
what Ben read out with a perfectly expressionless voice, not even faltering
over the name.
‘Of course she must come,’ said Mrs. Renton. ‘Mary, you must write a
note for me. Say that the boys being here makes no difference, and that if
she will come to luncheon and bring her friend——’
‘But, godmamma, Mr. Ponsonby is coming,’ said Mary, while Ben took
up the lamp, and stood like a monument, holding it in his hand.
‘Mr. Ponsonby will not eat her, I suppose,’ said Mrs. Renton; and then
there was a pause.
‘But, godmamma,’ Mary resumed after that interval, ‘don’t you think so
important a day as to-morrow is,—and so much as there will be going on
——’
‘Any stranger would be a bore,’ said Frank. ‘How are we to go and talk
and be civil, when an hour more may see us set up or ruined——’
Here Alice plucked at his sleeve, indicating with a look of warning the
stolid countenance of old Willis, who stood listening to everything. ‘If it
would be any pleasure to grandmamma, I would attend to them,’ she said.
‘And I think it would be a very good thing for you all,’ said Mrs.
Westbury, ‘and take your minds off yourselves a little. It is a blessing to
have a stranger for that,—you are obliged to exert yourselves, and kept
from brooding over one subject. I think your mother is quite right.’
‘Let us have them,’ said Laurie. ‘What does it matter? Old Ponsonby is
always late.’
‘He will surely never be late on an occasion of such importance,’ said
Laurence Westbury.

Mrs. Renton looked from one to another with an anxious countenance,
and they came round the sofa, glad of the little interruption to that family
quiet which was almost too much blessedness. Ben, who said nothing,
lighted up the circle in a curious Rembrandtish way, holding his lamp so as
to screen his mother; and outside stood old Willis, erect as a soldier, with
unmoved countenance, waiting for the answer.
‘Ben, what do you say?’ said Mrs. Renton, with all the earnestness of a
last appeal.
‘That you must do just what you like, mother,’ said Ben.
Upon which she wrung her hands in despair. ‘How can I tell what I shall
like if none of you will advise me?’ she said.
‘I will attend to them, if grandmamma would like it,’ said Alice, coming
to the head of the sofa. ‘And I am sure you would like it, dear
grandmamma; it would give you something else to think of.’
‘So it would, my dear,’ said Mrs. Renton, ready to cry; ‘and how I am to
get through to-morrow without some assistance is more than I can tell.’
‘It will take all your minds off the one subject,’ added Mrs. Westbury;
‘and of course there must always be luncheon. Mary, go and do what your
aunt tells you. It will be good, my dears, for you all.’
And Ben gave a little gesture with his hand, Mary caught his eye over
the glowing darkness of the shaded lamp, and went and wrote her note
without a word. Ben’s face had said, or seemed to say, ‘Let them come,—
what does it matter?’ And if it did not matter to him, certainly it mattered
nothing to any one else. When the note was despatched, Alice sat down at
the piano and played to the entire satisfaction of her husband, his mother,
and Laurence Westbury. Ben settled down in a corner and took a book, till
his aunt Lydia went and sat beside him, when an earnest conversation
ensued; and Laurie stood idling by the window, beating back the moths that
came in tribes to seek their destruction in the light, and sometimes saying a
word to Mary, who, half occupied by the music and more than half by her
own thoughts, sat near him within the shadow of the curtains.
‘What sort of people are those that are coming to-morrow, and why don’t
you like them?’ said Laurie, under cover of a fortissimo.
‘I never said I did not like them,’ said Mary.
‘No; but I know you don’t. Who are they?’

And then the music fell low into tremulous, dying murmurs, and all was
silent in the room except for a shrill ‘s’ now and then of Mrs. Westbury’s
half-whispered energetic conversation with Ben. When the strain rose and
swelled into passion, the talk at the window was resumed.
‘It is not they,—it is she I don’t like;—one of my old school-fellows, and
the most beautiful woman you ever saw.’
‘Hallo!’ said Laurie, ‘is that the reason why?’
‘Yes, of course. We should all like to strangle her because she is so
pretty,’ said Mary, with a certain rancour in her voice.
Laurie sent a great night-moth out with a rush, and then he stooped
towards his cousin’s hiding-place. ‘Granted in the general,’ he said, ‘but
there is something particular about this.’
What could Mary say? Her heart was quivering with that poignant sense
of weakness and inability to resist fate which sometimes overcomes a
woman in those secret machinations for somebody else’s good, which are
so seldom successful. ‘I have done,’ she said; ‘I will try no more.’ And that
was all the answer that was given to Laurie’s curiosity.
Alice had not fallen off in her playing. The piano, under her fingers,
gave forth such sounds as wiled the very hearts out of the bosoms of the
three who were listening. Mrs. Renton lay back on her sofa, with the tears
coming to her eyes and a world of inarticulate, inexpressible feeling in her
heart. Had it been poetry, the poor lady would have yawned and wished
herself in bed; but now she had floated into a serene Eden,—a Paradise full
of all vague loveliness, and sweetness, and unspeakable, indistinct
emotions. As for Laurence Westbury, he dared scarcely draw breath, so
entirely did the witchery seize him. The music to him stormed and struggled
like a soul in pain, and paused and sank to give forth the cry of despair, and
swelled into a gathering hope, into a final conflict, into delicious murmurs
of sweetness and gratefulness and repose; there was a whole drama in it,
moving the real listener with such a rapid succession of feeling as the
highest tragic efforts of poetry call forth in others. While in the meanwhile
Ben and Aunt Lydia talked quite undisturbed in their corner of railways and
investments, and of how much Renton might be improved, and how fast
Dick Westbury was making his fortune out in India; and Laurie was driving
out the moths, and moralising over their eagerness to enter, and thinking of
anything in the world rather than the music. Such were the strange

differences of sensibility and feeling among half-a-dozen people, all of one
race.
A forlorn hope that it might rain next morning, and so prevent the
threatened invasion, was in Mary’s mind up to the last moment. She felt as
if, having thus failed in her own person, Providence must aid her to save her
cousin, the head of the house, who was of so much importance to the
family, from such a snare. But Providence refused, as Providence so often
does in what seems the most heart-breaking emergency, to aid the plans of
the schemer. As lovely a September morning as ever shone brightened all
the park and the trees under her windows as she gazed out, unable to
believe that she was thus abandoned of Heaven. But there could be no
mistake about it. It was a lovely day, enough to tempt any one to the woods
had there been no purpose of the kind beforehand; and as if to aggravate her
sense of the danger of the situation, Ben himself was visible from her
window, coming up the river-path in boating costume, though it was only
half-past seven in the morning. Had he been on the river already at this
ridiculous hour? Passing The Willows no doubt, gazing at the closed
windows, pleased with the mere fact of being near her, though at such an
hour no one, Mary assured herself with a little scorn, had ever seen
Millicent out of bed; and on such a day as this, when all his prospects for
life hung in the balance! But, strangely enough, it never occurred to Mary in
her womanish pre-occupation to think that it might be the feverish
excitement of the crisis, and not any thought of Millicent, which had roused
Ben and driven him to try the tranquillising effects of bodily exertion.
Notwithstanding the atmosphere of family anxiety by which she was
surrounded, the fact was that Millicent’s visit was ten times more important
in Mary’s eyes than that of Mr. Ponsonby. The one did not cost her a tenth
part of the anxious cogitation called forth by the other. No doubt the will
would be read and everything settled, ill or well. Ben would have Renton,
as he ought; or Frank would have it, or it would be settled somehow; but the
effect of Millicent’s appearance would be to unsettle everything. It would
rouse up those embers of old love which she felt were smouldering in Ben’s
mind. Smouldering! How could she tell that they were not blazing with all
the warmth of present passion? Else, why had he sallied out in the dawn of
the morning only to pass by the sleeping, shut-up house which contained
the lady of his dreams? For that he had gone out for this purpose, and no
other, Mary felt as certain as if she had watched him every step of the way.

But there was nothing now to be done but to submit, and to put the best face
that was possible upon it. Perhaps, indeed, if anything should occur so as
that Ben should not have Renton, it would no longer be an unmixed
misfortune, for it would take him out of Millicent’s way.
It was hard to tell whether it was a relief or an annoyance to find a
stranger at the breakfast-table when they all met down-stairs. ‘What a
nuisance!’ Frank said to his wife, feeling that Ben’s right-hand man was not
the sort of person to be admitted to familiar intercourse with the family at
such a moment. But Mary felt, on the whole, that Hillyard’s unexpected
appearance was a good thing for Ben. The stranger, who ought to have
arrived some days before, had been detained, and got down to Cookesley on
Sunday night, from whence it appeared Ben had gone down early to fetch
him, thus explaining, to the great consolation of his guardian and watcher,
his early expedition. Hillyard was very carefully dressed, too carefully for
the morning, and a little impressed by the house and the circumstances. His
beard had been trimmed and his wardrobe renewed before he would follow
his once protégé, and now patron, to the Manor, and he was very anxious to
make himself agreeable, and justify his presence.
‘I know I should not have come at such a time,’ he explained to Mary; ‘I
told Renton so. Of course we have been so much together that I could not
but know why he was coming home.’
‘I do not think it makes any difference,’ said Mary. ‘I am sure my aunt
will always be glad to have any of Ben’s friends.’
‘It is very good of you to say so,’ Hillyard answered gratefully. And then
he began to tell her what a fine fellow her cousin was, and what a head he
had, and how he had mastered his profession while other men would have
been gaping at it. ‘He is master and I am man now,’ he said, unconsciously
using Ben’s words, ‘though I was brought up to it; and I should just like you
to see the beautiful work he puts out of his hands.’
‘I daresay I should not understand it if I saw it,’ said Mary, smiling
behind the urn; but she lent a very willing ear, and thought Hillyard a very
nice person. Unquestionably he was a relief to the high strain of suppressed
feeling which appeared in every face at the table, except, perhaps, Laurie’s,
who, late as usual, came in, carrying the baby in his arms, and did not mind.
‘Here is a little waif and stray I found wandering about the passages,’ he
said. ‘Little Laurie, your mamma does not care about you to-day; you had

better stay with me.’
‘Doesn’t mamma care for him, the darling!’ cried Alice. And then the
child was picked up, having made a rush to her arms, and set up beside her
at table.
‘The heir-presumptive, I suppose?’ Hillyard said behind the urn; and
Mary began to think he was not quite so nice as she had thought him before.
Then the members of the family dispersed, to kill this lingering, weary
forenoon as they best could. Ben and Hillyard went out together in earnest
conversation, and Laurie established himself in a shady corner of the lawn,
and made a group of Alice and her children, and began to draw them; while
Frank started off, as he said, for a long walk. Mr. Ponsonby had announced
that he was to come by the one o’clock train; but there was another three-
quarters of an hour later, and nobody who knew him expected him to arrive
by the first. And at half-past one Millicent and her friend would come to
luncheon. Such a conjunction of events was very terrible to think of;
though, perhaps, not so alarming to any one as to Mary, who alone knew of
the motives of the latter visit. She had to go about her usual occupations all
the same. She could not cheat the sick expectations of her heart by joining
the group on the lawn and chatting with the children, nor could she rush
forth to still her anxieties by bodily exertion, like the boys. A woman, she
thought to herself, is always tied to the stake. She had to fulfil all her little
peaceful household occupations as if her heart was quite at ease, and had
not even any sympathy to support her, for what was it to her any one could
have said? They were all three her cousins, and it could not matter very
deeply to her which of them got Renton; and as for Millicent, that was mere
feminine jealousy, and nothing else,—so Mary had to lock up her troubles
carefully in her own breast.
It was only about a quarter past one when Millicent arrived at Renton,
and with her came her mother and her ‘friend,’ who was the young soldier
they had seen rowing her on the river. Mrs. Renton had just come down-
stairs, with Davison carrying her shawls and her worsted work, and it was
to her the visitors made their way. ‘Mr. Horsman is a connexion of my poor
husband’s,’ Millicent said with a decent sigh. ‘He is a brother of Sir George
Horsman, whom Nelly married. Nelly is my sister-in-law, Mrs. Renton; but
I suppose you know?’

‘Indeed I know very well,’ said Mrs. Renton. ‘It was she who we once
thought would have married Frank. Not that I am not perfectly satisfied
with Frank’s wife. She is certainly nice, and suits him admirably, which of
course is the great thing. But she had no money. And there was once a time
when he saw a great deal of Miss Rich.’
‘She was quite a catch,’ said Mrs. Tracy,—a word which wounded Mrs.
Renton’s ear.
‘I cannot say I looked upon it in that point of view; but the young people
were thrown in each other’s way a great deal,’ Mrs. Renton said with some
stateliness; and Millicent immediately rushed into the field.
‘I thought the Mr. Rentons had all arrived,’ she said, ‘and yet you are
alone;’ and cast an angry glance at Mary, as if demanding of her where they
were.
‘What has become of the boys?’ said Mrs. Renton, looking round her. ‘I
have only just come down. The fact is, it is a very exciting day for them; we
expect Mr. Ponsonby down immediately to read the will.’
Millicent and her mother exchanged glances. ‘Then the time is up?’ Mrs.
Tracy said meditatively, and bent with increasing solicitude over the invalid
on her sofa. ‘What a trial for you!’ she said, clasping her hand in sympathy.
And Mrs. Renton raised to her eyes that said unspeakable things.
‘Ah! yes,’ she murmured; ‘but nobody thinks of me;’ and this balm of
consolation was sweet to her heart.
They all came dropping in a few minutes later to luncheon, and Ben and
Hillyard were among the first. ‘Ponsonby has not come by this train,’ said
Ben, ‘but Frank is waiting at the station for the next.’ It was hard not to feel
as if Frank was doing the rest an injury by waiting to have the first word
with the lawyer; such, at least, was Mary’s instinctive feeling. But her heart
was weighted now with a more painful anxiety still. She saw Ben give a
brief, contemptuous glance at young Horsman, whose position was not a
comfortable one, and her heart sunk. But then he turned away from
Millicent,—avoided seeing her, indeed, in a curious, visible way, and that
was a consolation. Mrs. Tracy, however, got up with effusion to shake
hands with dear Mr. Renton, begging that she might have a good look at
him, to see if he was changed. ‘Not at all changed,’ was her verdict. ‘Just
the same generous face that once came to our help in our troubles. Mr.
Renton, do you know I may say you saved my life?’

Then Millicent, too, rose, and, with a whole drama in her eyes, held out
her hand to him. There was regret, remorse, and a tender appeal for pardon,
and a sweet self-pity in those blue, shining eyes. They seemed to say, ‘Be
kind to me! Be sorry for me! I am so sorry for myself!’ But it was hard to
make out whether there was any answer in Ben’s looks. She stood so turned
towards him, holding out her hand, that he had no choice but to draw near,
and then she turned meaningly towards a vacant chair at her side. He could
not have gone away without rudeness, and Ben was not disposed to be rude
to anybody at such a moment of fate. He took the seat accordingly, though
with grave looks, and then there came a gleam of triumph into Millicent’s
eyes.
‘How curious we should have chanced to come here on this day of all
others,’ she said, her voice sinking to its softest tones. ‘You told me of it the
very last time we met; but, perhaps, Mr. Renton, you forget?’
‘Did I tell you of this?’ said Ben. ‘What a good memory you must have!
but there are some things I do not forget.’
‘Ah! something unkind about poor me, Mr. Renton! but if you knew
what I have had to go through since, you would not think anything unkind.’
‘I suppose we have all had a great deal to go through since,’ said Ben.
‘Seven years! it is a large slice out of one’s life; one’s ideas about most
things change immensely in seven years.’
‘Do they?’ said Millicent, looking at him with soft, appealing eyes.
‘Very much,’ said Ben, with a smile; ‘so much that one looks back with
amazement upon the follies one has been guilty of. A man says to himself,
“Is it possible I could have been such an ass?” Are ladies not subject to the
same effect of time?’
‘No;—ladies are more constant,’ said Millicent. ‘When our thoughts
have turned one way, it does not matter what happens, they always keep the
same. We may be obliged to change in outward appearance. We are not so
free as you gentlemen are. One’s friends or one’s circumstances sway one
sometimes, but in the heart we never change,—not half, oh! not a quarter so
much as you.’
‘That may be. I have no experience,’ said Ben.
‘But I have,’ said Millicent, ‘and I do so want to tell you. You know I
never was very happy in my circumstances, Mr. Renton. Mamma is very
kind, but she does not understand one’s feelings; and when she got me

abroad, she had me all in her own hands. Yes, you are quite right about the
change time makes. When I look back I cannot think how I could have done
it. But I was so young, and so used to obey mamma.’
‘And a very laudable principle, I am sure,’ said Ben, with a polite little
bow. ‘I beg your pardon—I thought I saw my brother and Mr. Ponsonby
coming up the avenue. You were saying,—something about obedience,—I
think?’
‘You do not think it worth while to listen to me,’ said Millicent.
‘Oh, yes, surely,—pray go on. I am full of interest,’ said Ben.
And then the poor creature looked at him with eyes which were pitiful in
the eagerness of their appeal. She was a mercenary, wretched woman, ready
to barter her beauty for comfort and wealth, and a fine house and a good
position; and yet there was still in Mrs. Henry Rich the same redeeming
possibility that there had been in Millicent Tracy. If he would have taken
her out of that slough of despond, she would have been good, have made
him a true wife, have grown a gentle lady, so far as it was in her. To the
bottom of her soul Millicent felt this,—just as many a poor criminal feels
that in other circumstances he would have been a model of all virtue. And
for her the matter was not one without hope;—marriage to a woman may
always be a new life,—and the seven years had not dimmed her eyes, nor
taken the roses from her cheeks. And by those roses and bright eyes and
lovely looks are not a woman’s fate determined continually? Again, it was
her last hope. For though admiration was always sweet, yet to be troubled
with a boy like this young Guardsman, was irksome to Millicent in her
maturity. And to go through a round of such boys,—flattering, wooing
them, being wooed,—good heavens! was this all that fortune had in store
for a woman? Therefore she made one more effort before she yielded to
fate.
‘You were more interested, Mr. Renton,’ she said, with soft reproach,
‘when we talked together last,—oh, so much more interested! If I did not
know you so well, I could scarcely think it was the same.’
‘That is true,’ said Ben; ‘but you taught me some things, Mrs. Rich, and I
profited by the lesson. I doubt whether but for your assistance I could ever
have been the man I am.’
‘Ah! then I have at least something to do with you?’ said Millicent.
‘Come and tell me, will you? It is not like London, where one was always

being interrupted. In the country there is so much time for talk.’
‘But I have no time,’ said Ben. ‘After to-morrow I shall probably go
away again; and when I tell you I have profited by your instructions, I think
that is all I have to say.’
‘You are angry with me because of,—because of,—poor Henry,’ said
Millicent, with tears coming to her eyes. ‘But ah, Mr. Renton!—ah, Ben, if
you only knew!’
Ben sprang impatiently to his feet. To him, as to any other generous man,
it felt like a personal pang and shame to see a woman thus humiliate herself.
He made a long step towards the window, with a flush on his face. ‘Here
they come!’ he said, though at the moment he was not thinking much of
their coming. And then there ensued a sudden inevitable flutter in the family
which affected the guests. Alice, who had been charitably talking to the
Guardsman, jumped up with a little cry of excitement, and sat down again,
ashamed of herself, but with all possibilities of conversation quenched out
of her; and Mrs. Renton, whom Mrs. Tracy had been occupying to the best
of her ability to leave Millicent free for her important interview with Ben,
was suddenly overcome, and cried a little, lying back on her pillows. ‘Oh
Ben, my dear! I don’t know how I am to bear it,’ she said, holding fast by
her son’s hand. Laurie was the only one who was perfectly steady. He came
forward immediately from the background, and raised his mother up,
supporting her on his arm. ‘You will bear it beautifully, mamma, as you
always do,’ said Laurie. ‘Come and give us our luncheon. You forget we are
not alone.’
And he supported her into the dining-room, holding her hand caressingly
in his. As for Ben, he turned and gave his arm to Millicent, ‘As if I had been
a cabbage,’ she said afterwards, indignantly. None of her pathetic glances,
not the soft little pressure of her hand upon his arm, gained the slightest
response. His face was set and stern, full of thoughts with which she had
nothing to do. Mrs. Tracy ventured to whisper as she followed, ‘Ah, how
sweet it is to me to see you two together again!’ But Ben did not even hear
what she said. He waved his hand to Mr. Ponsonby in the distance as he
went across the hall. The beautiful face at his side had no more effect upon
him than if it had been a hideous mask. He was absorbed in his own
business, and careless of her very existence. Millicent, in her fury, could
have struck him as he took her into the dining-room. Was this to be the end?

CHAPTER XIII.
THE WILL.
It was Hillyard’s behaviour at this meal which gained him the regard of the
various members of the Renton family. He took such pains to attend to the
strangers, and give to the agitated group the air of an ordinary party, that all
of them who were sufficiently disengaged to observe his exertions felt
grateful to him. Millicent sat next to Ben on one side, but Hillyard had
placed himself between her and Mary Westbury on the other, and in all the
intervals of his general services to the company Mrs. Rich had his attention,
for which Mary blessed him. She herself, overcome by many emotions, was
but a pale spectator, able to take little part in what was going on, saying
now and then a languid word to the unfortunate Guardsman, but capable of
nothing more except watching, which she did with a sick excitement
beyond all description. Mary was so pale, indeed, and watchful and excited,
that her mother was alarmed, and made signs to her across the table which
she did not feel capable of understanding. ‘She will cry if she does not
mind, and make a scene,’ Mrs. Westbury said to herself; and set it all down
to the score of Ben, which was true enough, but not as she thought. As for
Ben, he inclined his ear specially to Mrs. Tracy, who was at his other hand,
and hoped she liked The Willows, and that her rheumatism was better, and a
hundred other nothings. There was, it is true, nothing very remarkable about
this party, looking at it from the outside. They were well-dressed people,
gathered round a well-appointed table, getting through an average amount
of talk, smiling upon each other like ordinary mortals; but yet underneath
how different it was; Mrs. Renton was consoled, and ate her luncheon,
sustained by her son Laurie’s attentions; but Mrs. Frank Renton trembled so
that she could scarcely keep up the fiction of eating, and grew pale and
flushed again six times in a minute, and nervously consulted the
countenance of her husband, who, very silent and self-absorbed, drank his
sherry, and more of it than he wanted at that hour, taking little notice of any
one; then, at the other end of the table, there was Mrs. Tracy, hanging with
ostentatious, artificial interest on every word uttered by Ben; and Millicent,

very pale, with an excited gleam in her eyes, casting tender, wistful looks at
him, which he never saw; and Hillyard talking enough for six, helping
everybody, introducing a hundred indifferent subjects of conversation,
which ran a feeble course half-way round the table and then died a natural
death. Mrs. Westbury, one of the few people who was calm enough to
remark upon the appearance of the others, concluded within herself that,
after all, the strangers were a mistake. If the family party had been alone,
their excitement would have been nothing beyond what was natural; but her
own child, Mary, who ought at least to have been one of the calmest of the
party, sat by that unhappy Guardsman pale as a ghost, once in ten minutes
saying something to him, and looking as if she were about to faint; and all
the others were equally under the sway of agitation and self-restraint. When
this uncomfortable meal came to an end, everybody rose with an alacrity
which showed how glad they were that it was over. And then there ensued
another moment of supreme embarrassment. If the strangers had any sense
of the position they would go away instantly, the family felt; but instead of
that, Millicent moved at once to the upper end of the room, where there
stood upon a crimson pedestal a bust of the last Benedict Renton, and
humbly begged of Ben to explain to her who it was; and while the others
stood about waiting, he had to follow and describe his grandfather, and
fulfil the duties of showman, Mrs. Tracy rushing to join the group.
‘Benedict Renton—your name!’ Millicent said, with again another
attempt upon his feelings, while Ben stood angrily conscious of the effort
and contemptuous of the fooling, scarcely concealing his eagerness to be at
liberty. ‘And this portrait, Mr. Renton? I can trace the family resemblance,’
said Mrs. Tracy. And all this while Mr. Ponsonby’s blue bag waited outside,
and the family murmured, standing round in agonies of suspense to know
their fate. Then once more Hillyard stood forth, vindicating his claim to be
called Ben’s right-hand man.
‘Let me be cicerone,’ he said, ‘Renton, I know you are anxious to see to
your business. Mrs. Rich will take me for her guide to the pictures for the
moment. You know Mr. Ponsonby cannot wait, and you are losing time.’
‘If Mrs. Rich will excuse me,’ said Ben.
‘Oh, please don’t think of excuses; we can wait,’ said Millicent. ‘Mayn’t
we wait to learn the news?’ and she clasped her hands softly, unseen of the

bystanders, and gazed into his face. ‘Nobody,’ she murmured, lowering her
voice, ‘can be more interested than I.’
‘So long as you can find anything to amuse you,’ said Ben, half frantic.
‘Hillyard, I confide it to you;’ and he had turned away, before any further
dart could be thrown at him. Then there was a hurried consultation between
Mrs. Renton and her sister-in-law. ‘I shall stay with them; never mind. Of
course I am anxious too; but half-an-hour more or less don’t matter,’ Mrs.
Westbury said, with the voice of a martyr; and when Millicent looked round
she found herself standing alone with her own special party, Hillyard at her
right hand, and Mrs. Westbury, with a smile of fixed politeness, behind. Ben
was gone. He had made no answer to her appeal,—he had shown no
inclination to linger by her side. She had put forth all her strength for this
grand final coup, and it had failed.
‘I don’t think Mr. Renton has improved in politeness in his travels,’ she
said to Hillyard, unable altogether to restrain the expression of her despite.
‘He has not been in polite regions,’ said Hillyard; ‘and everything, you
know, must give place to business, now-a-days, even the service of ladies.
You must forgive him, when you consider what it is——’
‘I have nothing to do with him,’ said Millicent, angrily. ‘I hope I never
shall have anything to do with so rude a man;’ and then she paused,
thinking she had gone too far. ‘You know it is not a way to treat an old
friend——’
‘Poor Renton!’ said Hillyard. ‘He is so unlikely to be any the better for
this anxiety, you know,—that is the worst of it; and I don’t think he has any
hopes to speak of. He has made all his arrangements for going back to his
work——’
‘You don’t say so!’ cried Mrs. Tracy, with a look at her daughter. ‘And I
can’t believe it!’ cried Millicent.
‘But I assure you it is true. No one can know better than I, for I go with
him,’ said Hillyard; ‘all our arrangements are made. But let me show you
the pictures. This was Sir Anthony Renton, who was a—Master in
Chancery in Queen Elizabeth’s time,’ pointing to a respectable merchant in
snuff-coloured garments of the days of Queen Anne. But the visitors cared
nothing for the family portraits, and Hillyard’s last shaft had told. If Ben
was unlikely to have Renton, it was of no use spending more trouble upon
him. They consulted together hastily for a moment, and then they turned

their backs upon the pictures. ‘I have the pleasure to wish you good
morning, Mrs. Westbury,’ said Mrs. Tracy. ‘Since our friends are so much
occupied we will take our leave. Pray give Mrs. Renton my best
sympathies.’
‘It is to be hoped some one will get the money at the end,’ said Millicent,
with less civility, sweeping towards the door. And thus the strangers were
got rid of at last.
‘I flatter myself I did that,’ said Hillyard, with a chuckle of satisfaction.
And then he, too, took his departure, and left Aunt Lydia free to join the
party in the library, where the great revelation of the future fate of the
family was about to take place.
The air of restrained excitement in this room was such that it would have
communicated itself to the merest stranger who had entered. It was a dark
room by nature; and a cloud had just passed, as if in sympathy, over the
brightness of the day. The window was open, and the blind beat and flapped
against it in the wind, which was a sound that startled everybody, and yet
that nobody had nerve enough to stop. Mrs. Renton had been placed in an
easy chair near the vacant fireplace. Alice and Mary sat formally on two
chairs against the wall; and the three brothers stood up together in a lump,
though they neither spoke nor looked at each other. Mr. Ponsonby was
seated at the writing-table, arranging his papers and holding in his hand a
large blue envelope, sealed. There was complete silence, except now and
then the rustle of papers, as the lawyer turned them over. The members of
the family scarcely ventured to breathe. When Aunt Lydia entered they all
turned round with a look of reproach; their nerves were so highly strung
that the least motion startled them. In the midst of this silence, all at once
Mrs. Renton began to sob and cry, ‘I feel as if you had just come home
from the funeral!’ she said, with a wail of feeble grief. There was a little
momentary stir at the suggestion, so true was it; and Alice, being at the end
of her strength, cried too, silently, out of excitement. As for the brothers,
they were beyond taking much notice of the interruption. They were now so
much wiser, so much more experienced, since the day of the funeral, the
last time they had all met together in this solemn way. Now they did not
know what they were to expect: their confidence in their father and the
world and things in general was destroyed. By this time it had become
apparent to them that things the most longed for were about the last things
to be attained. Had they been all sent away again for another seven years, or

had the property been alienated for ever and ever, the brothers would not
have been surprised. Whether they would have submitted, was a different
question. Their opinions about many things had changed. Their unhesitating
resolution to obey their father’s will seven years ago, without a word of
blame, appeared to them now simple Quixotism. They were scarcely moved
by their mother’s tears. He had done them harm, though they had been
dutiful to him. He might now be about to do them more harm for anything
they could tell. The uncriticising anxiety and expectation which filled the
women of the party was a very different sentiment from the uneasy, angry
anticipations of ‘the boys.’ Few dead men have ever managed to secure for
themselves such a vigorous posthumous opposition. In short, he was not to
them a dead man at all, but a living power, against which they might yet
have to struggle for their lives.
Mr. Ponsonby looked round upon this strange company, with the big
envelope in his hand and an excitement equal to their own. He looked at
them all, after Mrs. Renton’s crying had been quieted, and cleared his
throat. ‘Boys,’ he said, hoarsely, ‘I don’t know what’s in this any more than
you do. He did it without consulting me. If it is the will of ‘54 that is here, it
is all just and right; but if it is any new-fangled nonsense, like what I read to
you here seven years ago, by the Lord I will fight it for you, die or win!’
This extraordinary speech, it may be supposed, did not lessen the
excitement of the listeners. Alice crossed over suddenly to her husband, and
clung to him, taking it for granted that disappointment and downfall were
involved in these words. ‘Dear, if there is nothing for us, I shall not mind!’
she cried, gazing at Mr. Ponsonby with a kind of terror. ‘Quickly, please; let
us wait no longer than is necessary,’ said Ben, with a certain peremptoriness
of tone. Mr. Ponsonby had settled down in a moment, after this outburst, to
his usual look and tone.
‘I need not trouble you with many preliminaries,’ he said; ‘you all
remember how everything happened. He sent for me a week before his
death, and gave me this,’ holding up the envelope, ‘and this letter, which I
have also here. When I remonstrated his answer was, “If the one harms, the
other will set right.” My own impression now is, I tell you frankly, that his
mind was affected. Have patience one moment. Nothing in the shape of a
will, even in draft, was found among his papers, so that there is nothing
whatever to set against this, or explain his intention. If it is that of ‘54 it is
all right——’

‘No more!’ cried Ben; ‘let us know what it is at once.’
Then the lawyer tore open the envelope. Not a sound but the tearing of
the paper and crackling sound of the document within was to be heard in
the room, except one sob from Mrs. Renton, which seemed to express in
one sound the universal thirst of all their hearts. Mr. Ponsonby rose up as he
unfolded the paper; he stopped and gazed round upon them blankly, with
consternation in his eyes. Then he opened the sheet in his hand, turned it
over and over, shook out the very folds to make sure that nothing lurked
within,—then caught up the torn envelope and did the same. And then he
uttered an oath. The man was moved out of himself,—he stamped his foot
unconsciously, and clenched his fist, and swore at his dead antagonist. ‘D
—— him!’ he cried fiercely. This pantomime drove the spectators wild.
When he held up the paper to them they all crowded on each other to see,
but understood nothing. It was a great sheet of blue paper, spotless—
without a word upon it. Mr. Ponsonby in his rage tossed it down on the
floor at their feet across the table. ‘Take it for what it is worth!’ he shouted,
almost foaming with rage. Frank, at whose feet it fell, picked it up, and held
it in his hands, turning it over, stupid with wonder. ‘What does it mean?’
cried Ben, hoarsely. Surprise and excitement had taken away their wits.
‘Give it to me!’ said Mrs. Renton, from behind; and her son, upon whom
the truth was beginning to dawn, threw it into her lap. It flashed upon them
all at once, and a kind of delirium, fell on the party,—flouted, laughed at,
turned into derision, as it seemed, by the implacable dead.
‘It means that there is no will. I have been keeping a blank sheet of paper
for you,’ said Mr. Ponsonby bitterly, ‘for seven years.’
And then there was another pause, and they all looked at each other, too
much bewildered to understand the position, as if the earth had been rent
asunder at their very feet.
‘We never did anything to him to deserve this!’ said Laurie suddenly,
with a voice of pain. ‘Is there no mistake?’
As for Ben, he said nothing. His eyes followed the gleam of the paper,
which his mother was turning over and over in her helpless hands, as if the
secret of it might still be found out. But by degrees his eyes lighted up.
Almost unconsciously he made a step apart, separating himself, as it were,
from the audience, placing himself by Mr. Ponsonby’s side as a speaker.
There was a certain triumph in his eye. After all, he was but a man, like

other men, and the heir; and his rights had been debated and questioned by
everybody, himself included. There was a flush and movement of
satisfaction about him,—a sudden warm blaze out of the absorbing
disappointment, baffled hopes, and bitter resentment which were rising
round him.
‘If there is no will,’ he said, with a deep flush on his face, and nervous
gesture of his hand, ‘Renton is mine, as it ought to be. I am in my father’s
place; and what has been done amiss, it is my place to undo. I cannot
believe that there is any one here who doubts me.’
While he was speaking, Alice uttered a little cry. She had turned to him
her white face, but without seeing him or any one. ‘Must we go back to
India?’ she said, with a voice of anguish. That was the shape it took to the
young pair. She was pale as marble, but Frank’s face was blazing red.
‘Hush, Alice!’ he said, fiercely; ‘that is our own affair.’
Ben made a movement towards them in his impatience. ‘I have told you
you should not go back!’ he cried. ‘I am here in my father’s place to set all
right.’
‘Stop a little,’ said Mr. Ponsonby, suddenly coming forward with a chair
in his hand, which he placed in the midst of them, sitting down upon it,
amid the agitated group. ‘You have not done with me yet. We have not
come to such simple means yet. Mrs. Frank, my dear, don’t be angry, and
don’t give way to your feelings. Things are not so bad as you suppose. I lost
my head, which is inexcusable in a man of my profession. It was a dirty
trick of him, after a friendship of thirty years. My dear young people, sit
down, all of you, and listen to me.’
No one made any change of position, but they all turned their eyes upon
him with looks differing in intensity, but full of a hundred questions. Frank
was defiant; Alice wild with despairing anxiety; Mrs. Renton crying; Laurie
soothing her; Ben very watchful, eager, and attentive. Mr. Ponsonby,
however, had entirely recovered his composure, which unconsciously had a
calming effect upon them all.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I lost my head, which I had no right to do; but I am
coming to myself. Now, listen to me. There is no will; and Ben from this
moment is master of Renton, as he says. But stop a little. The personal
property remains, which is worth as much as Renton. I don’t know what I
could have been thinking of to forget that. After all, there is really nothing

to find fault with but the look of the thing. The money has been
accumulating these seven years;—it has been as good as a long minority;—
and some of the investments have done very well. The land, of course, goes
to the eldest son; but the personality, as some of you ought to have known,
is divided. It comes to just about the same thing. God forgive me if I said
anything I ought not to have said in the excitement of the moment. It is
shabby to me, but it won’t harm you, thank God! I lost my head, that was
all, and more shame to me. The will of ‘54 would have come to much about
the same thing.’
‘Oh, Mr. Ponsonby,’ cried Alice, with streaming eyes, thrusting herself,
unconscious of what she was about, in front of them all; ‘tell me, will there
be enough to keep us from going to India again?’
‘There will be twenty thousand pounds, or more,’ said Mr. Ponsonby, ‘if
you can live on that; and I could, for my part.’
Alice, like the lawyer, had lost her head. She was too young to bear this
wonderful strain of emotion. She threw her arms about his neck in her joy,
and wept aloud, while they all stood by looking on, with such feelings as
may be supposed.
She was the only one who spoke. Her husband drew her back at this
point, half angry, half sullen, with his disappointment still dark in his face.
‘You had better go,’ he said to her, almost harshly; ‘you have heard all that
there is to be heard. It is best we should discuss the real business by
ourselves.’
‘Yes, come along,’ said Laurie, ‘all you ladies. You have heard it is all
right. You don’t want to hear the accounts, and all that legal stuff. We will
manage the business. I will take you back to your sofa, mother, now you
know all’s right.’
‘But is it all right?’ said Mrs. Renton. ‘I don’t seem to understand
anything. Ben, will you come and tell me? Have they all got their money,—
all the boys? And what is Frank to have for his children? Till you have
children of your own, it is his boy who is the heir. Laurie is always telling
me it will come right. I would rather hear it from the rest. Oh, boys! your
poor father meant it for the best.’
‘It is all right, mother,’ said Ben; ‘better than we thought.’
‘Ah, but Frank says nothing,’ said the mother. ‘I will not go away till I
am satisfied about Frank.’

Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.
More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge
connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and
personal growth every day!
ebookbell.com

Appraisal Sentiment And Emotion Analysis In Political Discourse A Multimodal Multimethod Approach 1st Edition Claudia Roberta Combei

About This Presentation

Slide Content

Tags

Categories

Download

Quick Actions

Statistics

Related Slideshows

Appraisal Sentiment And Emotion Analysis In Political Discourse A Multimodal Multimethod Approach 1st Edition Claudia Roberta Combei

About This Presentation

Slide Content

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 6

Slide 7

Slide 8

Slide 9

Slide 10

Slide 12

Slide 13

Slide 14

Slide 16

Slide 17

Slide 18

Slide 19

Slide 20

Slide 21

Slide 22

Slide 23

Slide 24

Slide 25

Slide 26

Slide 27

Slide 28

Slide 29

Slide 30

Slide 31

Slide 32

Slide 33

Slide 34

Slide 35

Slide 36

Slide 37

Slide 38

Slide 39

Slide 40

Slide 41

Slide 42

Slide 43

Slide 44

Slide 45

Slide 46

Slide 47

Slide 48

Slide 49

Slide 50

Tags

Categories

Download

Quick Actions

Statistics

Related Slideshows

TLE-9-Prepare-Salad-and-Dressing.pptxkkk

LESSON 1 ABOUT MEDIA AND INFORMATION.pptx

GRADE-8-AQUACULTURE-WEEKQ1.pdfdfawgwyrsewru

Feelings PP Game FOR CHILDREN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.pptx

Jeopardy_Figures_of_Speech_Template.pptx [Autosaved].pptx

Jeopardy_Figures_of_Speech.pptxvdsvdsvsdvsd